the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ the right wing delivers a crazy 13. let's play "hard ball." >> hello, i'm chris matthews in washington. politicians on the right have dop disturbing and and destructive things, derailed every major legislative item they could, immigration, the budget and even workplace discrimination. when they did take up legislation it looked like this. more than 45 separate votes to kill the affordable care act. abortion laws cooked up by the extreme right and countless

measures attacking the poor like slashing food stamps. they also advanced bills in three dozen states to suppress the voting rights of minorities and nearly toppled the economy by bringing us to the brink of our first ever default. they shut down the government. if you think that what they did was outrageous, wait to hear what they said this year. the far right uttered the most shocking, offensive, and even crazy things you can expect to hear in politics. over the next hour we'll show you most of them. here's a taste. >> a president who bows down to allah. >> we look like geniuses now. >> the administration's plan is simple, get everyone addicted to the sugar. >> are they using weapons to drain or being taught to use sir rings and health-care items. >> for everyone who is a val dikt tore yan, there's 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and calfs the size of cantaloupes

because they are hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. >> we can count down the far right's most knuckle headed statements covering a number of categories, the hatred of the president and his agenda and denial of reality. the antics of ted cruz and a special section devoted to steve king. joining me, howard fineman and jonathan capehart of the "washington post" and joan wallace. let's look at the hatred of president obama. number three in our list goes to u.s. congressman blake of texas, the tea partyier sided with a group of birthers and openly discussed impeaching the president. he is a ar dent supporter of ted cruz 2016 campaign for president. this is a clip from his appearance here on hardball in

september. it's remarkable. >> obama is president, ted cruz can be president. >> explain. this is serious business. >> absolutely. >> is he eligible to be president. you've been touting the guy. explain. is he eligible? you brought it up, i didn't. >> i think he's eligible and giving a yes answer. >> if obama was born overseas to an american mother and that crazy theory is true, he would still be eligible to be president by that standard? >> we're talking about ted cruz. obama -- >> can't you project mentally -- >> i'm telling you that president obama is the president. >> i want to -- no, you brought this up. >> what better -- >> the answer is yes. >> was he legitimate elected president of the united states? >> i wasn't in congress to determine that. that was determined before i got here. >> howard fineman, he won't do it. i guess he's afraid of what losing one or two votes by

saying this is a duly elected president of the united states. >> if dig down to the very core, ninth level of the anti-obama movement, you find people who not only view him from another party or country, but practically from another planet. the president is fully aware of this. i remember him saying, a lot of people don't think i was born here and wasn't sure what he meant by here. that's the theology of it. there's a sort of belief at the heart of this, that obama -- that the president is somewhat not only not legitimate, not an american, but not even from here. that's an element of theology with these people at the heart -- where everything starts, goes back to birtherism and goes back to the rejection sort of like their tissue rejection from him and never ever accepted his legitimacy. >> let's go to a more narrow and that cosmic thing is true.

down to the narrow conversation i was having with the u.s. congressman. if you're for ted cruz, born to an american mother in canada and fair enough he's an american and eligible to run for president. i'm a liberal guy. most of us are. the most crazy case is donald trump's that he was born to american mother in kenya. if you accept cruz as potential president, you should accept obama as a legitimate president. it was a simple question to put to this character and wouldn't answer it, even in the narrow bapds they set it up. >> you are asking for a moral and political integrity and consistency. they don't have it when it comes to this president. just to continue with what howard was saying, the reason they do this is because it works. for a year end piece i'm doing for salon. i've been looking back at 2009. the president takes office with approval ratings in the 7 o's and approval rating among white voters in the 60s. it stays there into the summer

and summer of the joe wilson saying you lie in september and his approval rating plummets from the 60s into the 40s and 30s and never budged. this strikes a chord beyond the narrow boundaries of the fringe. that's part of what scares me now. >> number two in the countdown goes to during a town hall in august, he told a crowd he wanted to impeach the president and couldn't tolerate the president's mere physical presence. this is a u.s. congressman responding to a question about impeachme impeachment. let's listen. >> if i could write that bill -- >> do it -- >> excuse me. it would be a dream come true. i feel your pain and know. i stood 12 feet from the guy and listened to him. and i couldn't stand being there. >> i couldn't stand being there,

david. you're going to get a shot, this thing about kootties and like some physical presence that disturbs him. people go to work every day and deal with people they don't know or like in some cases but business and sales, you've got to come up against -- nobody says i couldn't stand being -- this is high school stuff. >> everybody at this table has been in a room with barack obama. it's really not hard to be near barack obama. >> kind of a liked presence, an easy presence. >> easy going and smart and engaging, does reach out to people because he wants to -- by and large he's not a difficult person to be around. it's not about barack obama. -- it's a culture at fight and obama embodies everything they

can't stand. >> he's the ultimate gentleman and charming. he ain't hard to take. this is a great question, jo jonathan as a columnist. are they doing this because they feel a yuck factor with him? or selling the yuck factor to yaky. console every moment of their lives. two depending on -- we're talking about folks who have come to congress who aren't -- a lot of them aren't terribly smart. the guy you interviewed in that first clip, i wasn't here to determine whether the president is legitimately president. these are folks who failed

school house rock. this is what's ridiculous about this. the level of disrespect from september of -- >> remember i only believe what i see. have you been to japan? do you believe there's a tokyo? number one on the countdown goes to tea party activist, during the shutdown he helped organ anti-obama protest at the world war 2 memorial. they had their share of red hot recei rhetoric. but the while rant made the headlines. >> a president who vows down to allah is not a president of the people. he's a president of his people. i call upon all of you to wage a second american nonviolent revolution to use civil diso bead yens and to demand that

this president leave town, to get out. to put the koran down, to get up off his knees and to figure tifly come up with his hands out. >> that's a hell of a demand, put your hands down and get off your knees and leave town today or else we'll have a nonviolent second american revolution. >> right, we've elected that president twice, i love the way he throws in figure ra tifly so we can't say he's inciting violence but of course he is. also, let's remember, this is the rally where there was a guy with a confederate flag right there. they are outside the home of a black family. they are outside their home telling them to get out. i mean, this is where people -- >> an eviction notice, if you will. >> an eviction notice, when thank you, we've elected that man to lead us twice. they don't accept his legitimacy and don't accept ours either. but there's something so deep

and so disturbing about taking that -- ip know it's the people's house and it's our house, but they live there. that was so deeply disturbing to me -- and no one tomy knowledge, i don't know ted cruise was asked to disavow any of that. he was there at that rally. that was the same event. >> clue to the crazy right now. i agree completely. clue to the crazy, if this president were a imperial power dictating the world, why are you able to be such clowns in front of his world? attacking the man to attacking his plan. the republicans have saved the craziest talk for the affordable care act and this is "hardball." the place for politics. ♪ ♪

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we're back with more of the crazy on the right. this is the year republicans in the house of representatives shut down the government and contemplated defaulting on our debt in order to get the president to abandon the affordable care act. the plan had zero chances of succeeding but that didn't stop the likes of my shell bachmann and others for holding it hostage for the sake of political theater. the misinformation campaign launched by the right to turn the country against the law. michelle bachmann declared victory even as the country turned strongly against the republican tactic and warned the country if the law wasn't repeeled, it would literally kill, women and children and senior citizens, but bachmann topped herself with this incredible victory dance after the shutdown was over. it is number three on our list.

let's watch her. >> we hate to say we told you so, but quite honestly we look like geniuses now because we predicted this would happen and we don't want this to happen because we want people to have the health insurance that works for them and their family. >> in what looking glass does she -- the affirm masons looked like genius. >> genius and michele bachmann don't usually go in the same sentence. i think -- these people remind me a little bit of the road runner cartoons where they keep slamming into the same mountain. yes there are problems with this rollout and it's complex and the president has problems but most of the american people want to see it work and want to see health care extended. they still want to see reform of the health care system. and that's what the president is doing. now, they've -- they've lost in the congress -- they've lost in the supreme court. they've lost in the presidential

election. it seems to me if michele bachman had her way, the republicans would run again in 2014 and 2016 slamming into the same mountain. >> chris cuomo did a good job of challenging ted cruz. what's your plan? what's your plan? and this guy -- he was caught flat footed with nothing. he said our plan is to destroy obamacare. >> he got huffy that he was being lectured by chris cuomo when he just asked him a couple of follow-up questions and did his job basically. and ted cruz came out with that we're going to let people buy insurance across state lines which is an absolutely ridiculous plan that doesn't save anybody money or get anybody else insured. he did expose the fact the don't have a plan. >> tort reform. >> tort reform and sell insurance across state lines. >> warmed over plan. >> not much there.

when it comes to affordable care act the right wing is looking for a gotcha moment, if they can't find it, they are okay making it up. this is the epa oversight hearing in the house. paul brown tried to make news with this question for epa administrator jena mccarthy. listen to how she responds and watch how he distorts it. >> let me ask you one more question because my time is running out. are you signed up for obamacare? >> no, i am not. >> why not? >> because i'm lucky enough as a federal government that i have health care available to me which i've signed up for in a few years when that's not the case, i'll be happy to have other available -- >> our president says obamacare -- >> want to be clear, mccarthy is referring to the fact she's lucky enough to already have health insurance. she's not knocking the affordable care act. a few minutes later in the hearing right to her face, steve stockman chose to interpret her

words differently and that's number two in our countdown. >> i think though, earlier you gave me my favorite tweet of the day which i'm going to send out, which is -- >> wasn't my intent. >> really? the quote is from you, i love it. i'm lucky enough not to have to sign up for obamacare. that's wonderful. i wish my constituents could say the same. >> i was referring to i'm lucky enough to have access to good healthcare -- >> i still will take your quote for the record. i wrote it down. really good. >> jonathan, my father is a court stenography and had to write down what people said. he would have lasted three minutes. he completed changed what she said and read it back to her. >> remember in the last blog, a lot of these people aren't very smart. exhibit b. it's not what she said. she's the environmental protection agency -- >> press release when she wasn't

around at least. >> now you tweet your distortions immediately. >> this guy did it in real time on the same videotape so we can all see how he lied. lied is a strong word but he distorted. >> when you look at what michele bachmann said, that obamacare would kill women and kids and grandparents and this guy said this is what you said when it's not what you said. the fact they can get away with stupid remarks and outright lies because they tweet it out, it's -- >> it's all like -- >> they giggle at this stuff. when it comes to an balance compared o compared other networks. when it comes to anti-affordable health care hysteria, there are a lot of examples but this comment from the congressman louis goe mert takes the cake. affordable care act provides

funding for reserved few thousand doctors and health care workers to help out in times of national emergency. he sees something sinister. try to explain this. number one forever on our countdown. what is this guy talking about? >> it provides in obamacare, that this commission and noncommissioned officer corps will be trained but i want to know are they using weapons to train or are they being taught to use syringes and health care items? >> what do they army of people bearing syringes doing -- what do they call it? putting syringes up over their shoulder? what are we talking about? what fear zone is he working here. army of people like invasion of the body snatchers going around inoculating people with death panel juice or whatever the hell it is. >> we have a theme here in that we've got three guys from texas,

which makes me worry about my friends in texas, but this is -- these are the people that believe there are fema camps that obama is rounding us up -- not us, but then, put them in fema camps. they play on the base paranoia of a fringe of people and they get elected and re-elected. there's really no penalty for it. >> the last word, they get re-elected. this isn't costing anybody a job. >> these are deep red districts and the black helicopter theories of the world work there. when they are tweeting them out, most aren't reading what the congressman said, he's reinforcing the base. those people are following him. he's just giving more paranoid theories -- >> i'm still here. i'm still crazy. >> a paranoid sitdown strike going on in politics. >> constant booster shots to keep them in business. but syringes with an army. republicans who flat-out deny reality. should appeal to everybody watching.

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we're back. next we'll look at the reality deniers of the right wing. these are folks who for whatever reason still won't or don't get it. kicking off this category at number three is paul brown, a creationist who shuns science in favor of a literal interpretation of the bible. what's more per plexing is this guy sits on the house committee on science, space and technology. have a listen to what he told a group of his supporters last year. >> all of that stuff i was talking about, evolution, and embryology, big bang netheories lies straight from hell, to keep me and folks who taught them who

understand they need to say, i hold the holy bible as being the major directions to me of how i live in washington, d.c. >> i think he's speaking in the natural history museum of all places, denying the connection of us all there. i don't know why we test our medicines on animals. this seems to be a lot of connection, at least fiphysical with us and the rest of the world. he believes it somehow happened as it was in the bible as he interprets the bible and how he decides what to vote on, the science committee and house. >> lies straight from the pit of hell there might be other things straight from the pit of hell that don't have to do with evolution. he wants to be the senator from georgia and thinks he's got a bright future in georgia politics and all we can hope is

georgia steadily turns purple and blue and we don't have to deal with the paul browns of the world anymore. >> i'm glad he wasn't running nasa in the 60s, i don't know what we would have done. next up, number two, this comes from one time candidate and host of the syndicated program, the 700 club, pat robertson who believe it or not went to yale law, known to stoke fear and anxiety about the gay community. this was a whopper of an accusation he made last summer and so controversial that the christian broadcast network removed it from their website shortly after he spoke it. let's listen to pat robertson. >> you know what they do in san francisco, some of the gay community there, they want to get so if they got the stuff they'll have a ring and shake hands and the ring has a little thing where you cut your finger. >> really? >> really. it's that kind of vicious stuff, equivalent of murder. >> okay, jonathan, your thoughts

on the subject? where did he get this wife's tale? >> a lie is what it is. and this is a man who blames the gays for everything, hurricanes, earthquakes, name the national -- the natural disaster, whatever calamity -- >> 9/11. >> i don't know if he went that far but maybe because -- >> he was close. >> so that he would accuse people with hiv and gay people with hiv intentionally going out with some ort of wicked decoder ring cutting people and giving them hiv is outrageous. kudos for them taking it off the website. the fact he goes on the air and says what he says is outrageous. >> i've never figured out what this guy's story is. he did go to yale law, very small classes, incredibly hard to get into. and comes out with this over and

over again. >> i think he's a vaud vil yan, i think he knows better. he knows that this plays and the particular demonization of gay people is terrifying but these people are being left behind by history. and i think that fact scares them even more, to go out and say something like this, you know, someone from san francisco, it's just so -- it's so beyond reality and so cruel. it's so cruel. >> and it's worse than even our friend -- the former -- talking about how people made the choice -- >> i covered pat robertson's presidential campaigns. and he struck me as a guy willing to say and do just about anything to augment his role of az suppose i had spiritual leader. >> sometimes this incites violence.

if you take him at his word. what's the proper response? >> you kick the you know what out of somebody. >> the number one reality denier, ted yoho, of florida, speaking to the "washington post," on the prospects of defaulting on the u.s. debt. he made this claim that contradicted economists all over the earth. we need to have that moment where we rel lies we're going broke. i think personally it would bring stability to the world markets. your thought, howard? we're still suffering from the near miss of 11, near miss of 13 and he thought he better go off the cliff. >> this isn't economic thinking but apocalyptic thinking. everything is an apocalypse are -- everything falls apart

that you pick up the true belief whatever the true belief is, whether it's the holy bible or gold standard. whatever -- >> coming up, two republicans who stood out among the outstanding people this year, the standouts, one of them is ted cruz, the greatest and worst hits from cruz himself. mom swaps my snack for a piña colada yoplait. and when mom said i was going out too much, i swapped it for staying in. [ shouts ] guess who's going out tomorrow. [ female announcer ] swap one snack a week for a yoplait. it is so good. ♪ [ femal♪ i know they sayp oneyou can't go home again ♪it. ♪ ♪ i just had to come back one last time ♪ ♪ ♪ you leave home, you move on [ squeals ] ♪ and you do the best you can ♪ i got lost in this old world ♪ ♪ and forgot who i am

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i'm craig melvin. on this christmas eve, two that is aastronauts wrapped up their final spacewalk. they installed a new cooling pump. it was a record day for healthcare.gov. 2 million people visited the site. and the dow hit a record close at over 16,300 and s&p 500 saw a

record close. now back to a special edition of "hardball" with chris matthews. >> welcome back. this year freshman senator from texas ted cruz what's determined to make a name for himself. he found a way to turn it into a platform to show case himself. we're back with the panel, jonathan capehart, howard fineman and joan walsh. here's number three from ted cruz, in july, he made an i am passioned okay at the western e reconservative submit in denver, to block the president's health care law at all costs because of all things people might like it. let's listen. >> on january 1, the exchanges kick in and the subsidies kick

in. once those kick in, it's going to prove almost impossible to undo obama care the administration's plan is very simple, get everyone addicted to the sugar so that obama care remains i permanent future of our society. >> david, this is the strangest acknowledgement saying it might work and people might like it. >> they might like insured when they or their kids are sick. we have to stop this. there's a bigger picture here too. one reason they were so desperate to stop obamacare, when we fight about it, we're fighting about whether the u.s. government has a role in social policy in making things better for the average americans. talking about disrupters and so on, say no. government is the solution, we needless and less and less of it. if obamacare works and provides insurance to people in a way they appreciate, it blows

republican party -- >> wait a minute -- >> this is great stuff, for one second. i want to know this before the year is over. does the tea party want to roll back the safety net if obama care, health care is wrong as an approach, do they want to roll back medicare and get rid of it? get rid of social security? this is the big lie. they want all of that stuff. they love medicare. they love it. >> you're right, they are older, white, senior base, they love that stuff but don't think about it as something the government is doing for them. they take it for granted, always part of their landscape, none of us remember what it was like to gro old and live in that kind of fear. there is -- there's a real disconnect. you're right. between what they preach and what -- >> why are they -- why do they assume the center left, roosevelt to the left had built what some republicans support,

why do they feel they've always been wronged. if they were right about social security, it helps the poor and working poor and middle class? >> it's because these people believe that the role of faith and role of markets can take the place of the role of government. they do. i agree with you on one level, they don't want to get rid of medicare and social security. but they want to reverse history. they view this as a long-running program to reverse history. if they can stop obamacare or d dismantle, they'll take the risk of another conversation on social security. they will. >> when you're making a comparison to the nazis you're losing and so it was for senator cruz during his faux filibuster. it's number two in the countdown. let's catch the big mistake people keep making comparing anything to the third reich. >> if more politicians listen to the people, we would respond and

avert this train wreck. and yet, mr. president, the politicians of washington tell us, don't worry about it, obama care is just going to be peachy keen. you go to the 1940s. nazi germany. we saw in britain, chamberlain who told the british people, except the nazis. yes, they'll dominate the continent of europe, but that's not our problem. let's appease them. because we can't possibly stand against him. >> it was 1930s and had to do with check slovakia and he knows nothing. >> when you're doing a faux filibuster, you've got to talk about something, anything, green h eggs and ham, faux history. >> ted cruz falls into the other

category of people. he's not dumb. he's saying things that plays to the base, his base, which are the money people who keep rewarding him and keep rewarding his bad behavior. cruz was one of the most inglorious episodes of the year. it happened at the confirmation hearing for defense secretary nominee chuck hagel. he used a rerecei rhetorical si sig fi he may have taken money from the communists. >> it may he spoke at anti-israel groups and accepted compensation we don't know. he can't even say the $200,000 rehe received did not come directly from a foreign government. may be perfectly appropriate. we might conclude it was bee nine and reasonable but is it a minimum relevant to know if that $200,000 that he deposited in

his bank account came directly from saudi arabia or north korea. >> baseless innuendo. >> or anti-israel groups or anything else. it may have come from satan. it shows -- >> may have come from the heritage foundation. >> probably not. it shows there's no bottom line anymore and sort of a responsible safety net for discourse. there's no harm that can come to ted cruz for speaking this way, that will be greater than the benefit he reaps. he's leading the pact and the money is is flowing in. there's no shaming anymore. who can tell him, have you no decency? >> people live -- >> they try. >> he is the product of our times and product of the movement we've been discussing. it's no accident you're doing a whole segment on ted cruz.

he is like the summation of the whole thing you've been doing this whole hour. yes, he's only talking to his own people. there's no edward morrow or senate committee that can shame him. i disagree, i don't think he's necessarily going to win in the end. if you look even at republican polls, of who republicans like as a possible standard, the average republican is smart enough to know that ted cruz is not translatable to the country. >> in those round rob bin debates, it's going to kill the republican brand to have that guy's face there. >> people know that. >> up next, ted cruz may have been gotten the biggest headlines but iowa congressman steve king, not the author, not the smart guy, may have found the most absurdist things to say. i'm nathan and i quit smoking with chantix.

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the gop continues to alienate mainstream voters. >> what does raising a family teach you about international finance? >> independent judgment. >> where does knowledge about international finance derive from raising a family? what's the connection? >> my only source of information is raising my children. there are many other sources of information and i gather that just like you do. you have a judgment to be my critic -- >> no, no, i would ask -- do you trust the wall street journal? do you trust the "new york times"? >> i sometimes read the wall street yournl and new york times. i don't trust the words of any source. >> david, i don't trust the the word of any source but he raised a family so he understands the nuance of international finance which i'm going to jump from my ability to raise a family with

my wife to figuring out what's going on in zurich. i don't know how it works. >> i don't know entirely how it works either. i'm you had proud to defer to other people and that's not done on the right. this is an old, old tendency, they called steven son egg head and demonize knowledge and smarts and elevate what they think is a common sense wisdom that comes from the family, that comes from the father, the head of the household presumably. and it's crazy, but this is what they think is going to let them take back the country and it's not. >> okay, here's where the horse sense leads us, to the topic of president obama's birth. >> in any case it would have been awfully hard to fraudulently file the birth notice of barack obama being born in hawaii and get that into our public libraries and that microfish they keep of the newspapers published.

that doesn't mean there aren't other explanations on how they might have announced that from telegram from kenya. >> this white woman from kansas decides she wants her son to be president. she meets this guy from kenya and plans to have the birth announced in the hospitals and newspapers in honolulu and gets on an airplane and spends the money to get to kenya, all the time planning from 1969 who this kid she will name after her father, barack hussein obama, first african-american of any sort, she'll do this -- let's get to jonathan on this. it takes strategic planning. this is a hell of a shot. this is a long ball. >> it's completely insane. it feeds into this -- the birther notion which we all knew was ridiculous and all thought it went away once the president released his long-form birth certificate when the short form

birth certificate didn't prove sufficient for folks like donald trump. there were polls that came out, still a significant chunk of people who still believe the birther lie. the fact that congressman king is out there talking about microfish and birth certificate -- >> the thing about the common thread is the common thread is faith, not logic. it's family, not science. it's market, not government. >> why is that a matter of faith? >> we have this openly or frankly discussed either race or religion. >> why would that be a matter of faith he wasn't born there. >> he struck people from the very beginning, because of his name and background and his color in part, as somebody foreign as somebody who wasn't quite american, as somebody who didn't -- >> wait a minute, and in a world that they see where it's all

either good or bad, whether there is no gray -- only faith or lack of faith -- >> he's also a protége of left wing politics -- >> secret plan. >> part -- >> this is a machine. >> wait a minute, paranoid sitdown strike. >> the way to make this work really easy is with something like birtherism because it gets to the original sin. it's a plan, there's a telegram. he's not real. then later on it gets to the root of the problem, that he not just doesn't like us, a different color, thinks differently, but he really wasn't born here. >> you know who has the ultimate secret plan? satan. that's what this is about. >> you give me that look. i'm getting worried. now number one from steve king -- >> that wasn't number one. >> catch this.

catch this one. >> and some of them are valedictorians and their parents brought them, it wasn't their fault. they aren't all valedictorians and weren't all brought in by their parents. for everyone that's a valedictorian there's another 100 out there weigh 130 pounds and got calfs the size of cantaloupes for hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. >> why the word cantaloupe. remember used to shoot cantaloupes to see whether vince foster committed suicide or not. it was cantaloupe. i checked it. i remember a navy -- probably still alive, great running back, big wide legs. what is this about wide calfs like cantaloupes? he did it -- marijuana doesn't weigh that much. you have to have bushls of it and doesn't make your legs that wide. what is he talking about?

>> it's so icky because it reduces this alleged latino person to kind of being a beast of burden. he's an animal. you're looking at his body and -- i don't know, i don't stare at people's calves but there's something so elementary -- >> he does. >> obviously he does. >> give me numbers. >> this is parts of ojerrism, otherizing these people making them mules, this is why the republican party -- >> this is like sometimes -- look at the numbers. 100 out of for every valedictorian and weigh 130 pounds and carry 75 pounds of marijuana marge, there's a lot of information. this guy has put a lot of facts in this. >> a lot of information, wrong information and i think it all comes down to a matter of a complete -- you talk about faith versus logic. a tremendous lack of trust and

one of the clips you show a president -- i don't trust it. they don't trust -- >> interesting times. >> this is how you get a debt ceiling crisis when the folks on the hill do not trust the experts telling them if you don't do this, all hell will break loose. there's no trust and that's how you get someone like steve king talking about cantaloupes and bales of marijuana. >> we can make fun of steve king, but he comes from iowa, the first caucus, the beginning of the 2016 election, there would be a lot of people looking for his endorsement trying to play to his crowd, the crowd he's playing to will be played by ted cruz and rand paul -- >> hardball, what do they think? >> beyond iowa, beyond iowa and beyond the laughter, this is a serious issue and problem in

american life. we had an hour of enjoying the extreme statements of these people, but they are important in american politics and not just because of iowa but because they represent a strain in american life that is very large right now. in which there's no faith of any source of authority. >> it's more fun to laugh. you may have heard there's a new rinse that talks about protecting, even after eating and drinking. crest pro-health has always done that. and addresses all these other areas as well. rinsing with pro-health after brushing can take your oral health to a new level. now that's the new you need. [ ben ] i felt a difference. right off the bat, my mouth felt cleaner. i know there's been an improvement. i'm not gonna stop using pro-health. i mean, look at these things. [ male announcer ] go pro. with the brand you can trust, crest pro-health.

obviously it doesn't hurt too much to laugh because we've had a lot of fun talking about craziness on the right.

thank you howard fineman and jonathan capehart and joan walsh. thank you all for being with us. if you're out holiday shopping, get a copy of my new book, it will make you feel happier this holiday. see you monday night at 7:00 eastern for more "hardball." >> good evening, americans and welcome to the ed show. let's get to work. >> let's go. let's go. let's get to work. >> let's get to work. >> one of the missions i had when i came to msnbc was that president obama had just been elected. i wanted to do health care. >> you need to pay attention to what's happening in your backyard. >> fixing health care in this country is a moral obligation. >> what is our soul as a country is what the next generation is going to have to answer. >> when we start picking and choosing neighborhoods of who's going g